Fly Fishing in Montana

Packed and ready. All scrubbed and organised, ready to trade the mountains for the sea. This has been a mind-blowing Experience. With a Capital “E”.

I am lucky in a couple of ways… I do have Dok Filardi to guide me around. This guy is insane in his natural prowess. He is big and strong but more to the point, he is so aware of the world around him. I love his sublime comments like, ” Lots of moose around. They can be ornery. Stick close.”. No instructions about what to do should I disturb a moose. Just an open warning about their orneryness. Another one: We’re walking up Rock Creek and he points to a place about 50 feet away and says “That’s where a a big grizzly watched me from. He sat and watched me for a long time.” Again no real instructions. But, as we wade further up from this spot he says, “Great to be in a place where you’re not top of the food chain.”.

I am sore and feel so terribly unfit. My wind at altitude sucks and my physical conditioning is in need of an over-haul. My body from my navel on down is sore and merrily weary. Dok has just taken off up Mount Jumbo behind the house. He is a machine.

So I have agreed to invest in a wilderness property at the head of Willow Creek. Working with Chris and his friend, Grant, at the Five Rivers Land Trust we are hoping to create a forward motion for protecting some of this gorgeous land from the high-end developers. I am stoked about the possibility of being involved and assisting here. Hopefully we can make this happen and do a couple more such key properties as time goes on.

So, the smell of the ponderosa and larch is still in my jacket. I will savour the aroma of the wild mountains as I travel south and west into the Pacific. I do look forward to October… I shall return…

Last shot for now… being this close to the big horn sheep just blew me away… so, so magical…